China Coal Power Falls Below 50 Percent, Renewables Soar

JAKARTA - The share of coal-fired electricity in China has fallen below 50 percent for the first time. Official data shows that renewable energy is starting to take a larger share of the country's electricity supply.

China Daily, quoted on Friday, July 31, reported that coal-fired power plants produced 2.5 trillion kilowatt-hours in the first half of this year. Its share fell to 49.7 percent of total national electricity production.

Kilowatt-hour is a unit for measuring the amount of electricity produced or used.

Deputy Director General of the Department of National Energy Administration Planning or NEA, Xing Yiteng, called the achievement an important point in China's energy transition.

"Falling below 50 percent of total electricity generation for the first time is an important achievement in China's long-term push to seek renewable energy alternatives. This marks a new breakthrough in the country's green and low-carbon transition," Xing said at a press conference in Beijing, Thursday.

NEA said China's renewable energy expansion continues to run fast. By the end of June, the total installed capacity of wind and solar power reached 1.95 billion kilowatts, up 16.8 percent compared to the same period last year.

From January to June, electricity generation from renewable energy exceeded 40 percent of China's total electricity production. Renewable energy generated nearly 2 trillion kilowatt-hours of clean electricity, up about 9 percent year-on-year.

Its contribution reached 41.2 percent of the total national electricity generation.

Xing said China's energy security and effective investment remained strong despite the still complex global pressures.

Investment in new energy storage jumped 74.3 percent year-on-year in the first half. Funding for the hydrogen sector rose by more than 160 percent.

Investment in the construction of new electricity networks also increased by 13.5 percent. Meanwhile, charging infrastructure investment grew by 21.8 percent.

China's installed power generation capacity now exceeds 4 billion kilowatts. The scale is said to be far beyond other major economies.

Of the total, renewable energy contributed 2.45 billion kilowatts, or 60.7 percent. In the first half, China added 117 million kilowatts of renewable energy capacity. That figure is almost 74 percent of all new generating capacity installed.

China Daily wrote, China's total solar power capacity reached 1.27 billion kilowatts. The figure is almost equivalent to the country's coal-fired power plant capacity.

China's push for renewable energy has also impacted global energy costs. The International Renewable Energy Agency or IRENA said the average global cost of electricity from wind and solar projects has fallen sharply in the past 10 years.

The cost of electricity from wind projects has dropped by more than 60 percent. The cost of electricity from solar projects has dropped by more than 80 percent.

According to experts, the reduction in costs is largely attributed to China's technological innovation, large-scale manufacturing, and efficient supply chains.

Director of the China Center for Energy Economics Research at Xiamen University, Lin Boqiang, said the decline in the coal share below 50 percent was an important marker for China's energy system.

"Crossing the 50 percent threshold for coal power generation is a defining moment. This proves that our new energy system is developing rapidly, moving from a complementary role to a major driving force for the national electricity supply," said Lin.

Lin said renewable energy could still take a larger share if the flexibility of the electricity grid improved and new energy storage continued to grow.

"As network flexibility increases and new energy storage adds up on record scales, variable renewable energy will be able to take a larger share of the base load," he said.

The base load is the minimum electricity requirement that must be available continuously so that the electrical system can continue to run.